Playground

Vim online

A Vim buffer in your browser, free, with nothing to install. Try a command you just read about, or scratch out a macro before you run it on real code.

1# A real Vim buffer, right here. You start in Normal mode.

1# i to type, Esc to stop. h j k l, w and b to move. u undoes, Ctrl-r redoes.

3# Try these on the lines below:

4# ciw change the word under the cursor

5# dd, then p cut a line, put it back below

6# . repeat your last change

7# ci" change the text inside the quotes

8# qa ... q record a macro into a, then @a to replay it

9# :%s/apple/pear/g replace every apple

11apple, banana, cherry, apple

12const greeting = "hello world";

13- [ ] buy milk

14- [ ] learn Vim macros

15- [ ] quit Vim (the hard part)

NORMALLoading the editor…1:1

What you write stays in this browser.

The Vim playground needs a keyboard. Read on, and play it at your computer.

What works here

The engine behind the course, so each of these behaves as it does in Vim. Each links to the lesson that teaches it.

iaoEsc Normal, Insert, Visual and command-line modes Meet the modes →
wbeft motions, with counts Vim word motions →
dcyp operators on any motion Vim operators →
ciwci"dap text objects Vim text objects →
. the dot command The dot command →
uCtrl-r undo and redo Undo and redo →
vVCtrl-v visual, line and block selection Vim visual mode →
"ayy"ap registers Vim registers →
qa@a macros Vim macros →
/*n search Vim search →
:%s:g:normal Ex commands: :s, :g, :v, :normal, :t, :m, :sort Search and replace →

Is it real Vim?

It's our own implementation of Vim's editing, written for the browser, and every lesson and golf solution is replayed in real Neovim to check it. There's no file system, so :w and :q have nothing to do, and plugins and your vimrc don't load.

New to Vim?

A blank buffer teaches little. Chapter 1 of the course takes about seven minutes and is free; the Vim cheat sheet has every command, and practice drills make them stick.